Day 94: Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis

Abe Jacobs has returned to the Ahkwesahne (Mohawk) reservation twenty-five years after leaving at age 18. Things are not going well for Abe; he has stopped writing despite creating promising work as a teenager; his marriage to Alexandria East, a white woman much more interested in polyamory and promiscuity than he ever was, is in trouble; and he has developed a fatal autoimmune disease called Systemic Necrotizing Periarteris (SNiP) that has no known cure. While on the rez, Abe reconnects with family, sees people he has not thought about since high school, and wonders why his life has not turned out the way he thought it would since he moved to Miami where he has been working at a bookstore. Abe decides to let his great Uncle Mudge, a world weary recovering alcoholic, use his traditional and somewhat questionable traditional medicine thus allowing Abe, in ways that have to be read to be believed, to reconnect with his culture and roots.

The story is narrated by Dominick Deer Woods, Abe’s muse and more confident alter ego. Separating the narrator who has an in your face sense of humor as opposed to the downward sloping life of Abe Jacobs make the book a pleasure to read.  Throughout the book, the narrator shares his own poetry and has some rather clever and snarky lessons on the indigenous experience. For example, 

“Fun fact: the Kanien’keha word for white supremacy is ‘civilized’” (p186).

or 

“Eventually awareness of involuntary sterilization spread, which is a way of saying White Folks Who Gave a Shit found out. Which is proof we need more white folks to have our backs, if any was needed (and I mean have our backs, as opposed to telling us which way to go)” (p. 186).

or

”Intergenerational trauma and industrial pollution are a poisonous cocktail. Like I said, dig at any problem on the Rez and you’ll end up talking about white supremacy” (p. 230).

Curtis’ book is filled with sentences worth pondering and remembering. Old School Indian is the best book I have read so far in 2025.

May 25, 2025. kindle and Audible audiobook. 335 pgs.